This application claims the priority of German patent document 199 33 318.1, filed 16 Jul. 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a process for wireless transmission of messages between a vehicle-internal communication system and a vehicle-external central computer.
Wireless transmission processes of this general type have been known for a long time, for example, in connection with the RDS (Radio Data System). By means of the RDS, for example, up-to-date traffic information can be delivered to the driver in the form of speech.
Furthermore, processes are generally known for electronically generating a spoken text and for transforming text to speech (TTS=TEXT-TO-SPEECH) in which the text is first transformed to phonetic transcription (phonetic-prosodic parameters), and the phonetic transcription is then transformed to speech. Such a process is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,585, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. In the '585 patent, the two steps referred to above are carried out by a single special computer.
In the future, the transmission and reception of fairly long text messages (for example, dictated texts and/or E-mail messages) is to be permitted in motor vehicles. However, the acts of inputting text via a keyboard for sending a message, and of reading the text of a received message draws the driver's attention away from the traffic situation particular during the drive. It is therefore desirable to provide a vehicle mounted arrangement which permits the acoustical sending of messages which are to arrive at the recipient in the form of text, and the acoustical delivery of messages which are worded by the sender in the form of a text.
Conventional systems for accomplishing this purpose would require a speech recognition system and a TEXT-TO-SPEECH system in the vehicle, which would considerably expand the system expenditures of a vehicle-internal communication system. This is undesirable, however, because such a communication system should also perform a variety of additional functions, such as the operation of a navigation system and/or of a telephone system.
It is an object of the invention to permit the acoustical sending and receipt of relatively long text messages on board a vehicle, by means of a vehicle-internal communication system and to minimize the computing output of the vehicle-internal communication system required for this purpose.
These and other objects and advantages are achieved by the method and apparatus according to the invention, for wireless transmission of messages between a vehicle-internal communication system and a vehicle-external central computer. The vehicle-internal communication system according to the invention has an acoustic output unit for the playback of a received message. In the vehicle-external central computer, the message, which is at first present in text form and is to be sent to the vehicle-internal communication system, is transformed into a phonetic transcription and is transmitted to the vehicle-internal communication system in the form of the phonetic transcription. In the vehicle-internal communication system, the phonetic transcription is transformed to speech and is emitted via the acoustic output unit. Thus, for example, an E-mail arrived at the central computer can be transmitted to the vehicle and be read out.
The vehicle-internal communication system preferably also has an acoustic input unit by way of which a spoken message from an occupant of the vehicle is recorded and transformed to a phonetic transcription in the vehicle-internal communication system. The phonetic transcription is then transmitted to the vehicle-external central computer which subsequently transforms the message from a phonetic transcription into text and stores it and/or processes it in this form. If, for example, an E-mail message is present, it is transmitted from the central computer to the recipient.
The messages can be stored and managed in the vehicle in the form of phonetic transcription.
An important feature of the invention, is that only lower-expenditure transformation of phonetic transcription to speech and vice-versa is carried out in the vehicle. The high expenditure computing output, which is required for the transformation of the phonetic transcription to text and vice-versa, on the other hand, is shifted to a vehicle-external system which has sufficient computing capacity.
Furthermore, a phonetic transcription plays back speed in the form of compressed audio data. During the sending and receiving of phonetic transcription, the effective bandwidth requirement for the signal transmission can therefore be considerably reduced, whereby the charging times of the vehicle-internal communication system are minimized.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.